I’ll inform you what, that Gary Barlow can actually sing. Each time the pop star performs a snippet of one among Take That’s biggest hits, this unusual hybrid of a present lights up. His singing continues to be correctly highly effective – genuine, emotional and intriguingly enigmatic – and it’s a thrill to expertise it at such shut quarters. If solely this one-man present had explored the locations that Barlow’s music takes him. As a substitute, that is successfully a shrunken pop live performance turned inside out, with the stage patter stretched to breaking level and the songs stripped proper again. Might it's magic? No.
Barlow created the present alongside Calendar Ladies author Tim Firth and the script feels far too sentimental and, regardless of quite a few self-deprecating skits, just a bit bit smug. As Barlow recounts his comparatively simple path to success, from taking part in on the native labour golf equipment in Cheshire to pretty shortly being found and hitting the highway with Take That, there are only a few surprises or gritty particulars. There’s little pressure both. That is successfully the Take That story – and everyone knows that turned out fairly properly.
Even the moments of pathos and unhappiness find yourself feeling neatly packaged. Barlow’s feud with Robbie Williams turns right into a operating joke however you get the sensation there’s one thing a lot feistier and uglier lurking beneath Barlow’s sneaky swipes on the one band member who selected to step away. Barlow additionally talks about household tragedy, despair, dope and his wrestle with bulimia, nevertheless it’s all very self-contained and managed – as if Barlow is performing a sanitised model of himself, tidily flawed however not solely truthful.
Designer Es Devlin and lighting designer Bruno Poet – each heavy hitters on this planet of theatre and music – have been given comparatively little to do in a present that appears like a dressed-up dialog somewhat than one thing genuinely dramatic. The one actual drama occurs when Barlow sinks gratefully on to his piano stool (he seems like he’s coming house every time he will get close to a Yamaha) and begins to sing. Gary and his piano. Now that’s a love story I’d like to see.
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